The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-09-07
Dollars for Self-Dimes for God.
BY REV. ]. ]. RILLINGSLEY.
Text: Luke xii, 81.

material, the temporal. Description
of covetousnesS one who lays up
treasure for selfish purposes, for that
self that is to be denied, for himself,
as being an all-important parsonage,
for himself, without thought OF, and
in violent opposition to, the just
claims of God upon his money. And
last, a description Of sinful folly,
shown fully, and for various reasons.
The description is general. The man
is representative. One of large class
found in all lands and in all ages. In
the government of God he is regarded
as q criminal. The indictment is
short, specific, but full. He is charg-
ed with being rich toward himself,
poor toward God. Note close ly. God
is not entirely ignored by the man.
Perhaps, as Jew, he paid a part Of
his tithes. He gave something,
enough, it may be, to satisfy a decay
ed conscience, to meet in part the de-
mands of degenerate public senti-
ment, and maintain semi-respecta-
bility in matters of benevolence. But
this was all. At heart, he was close,
penurious, and avaricious; in life rich
toward that self and poor towards
God. This is the charge. 1t is so
now.
I. Men are rich toaoard Themselves
poor to,Dards God. That is. men are
thoughtful, careful, anxious about
themselves. 1t Is the one, prime and
all-important business of life, to pro-
vide for, take care of, and put them
selves on an independent footing, as
regards both man and God. To at
tain this, men must have gold. They
think they must, and so gold becomes
the all-absorbing aim of life. 1t be-
comes a god. In Queen Nab, Shelley
puts it thus:
Commerce has set the mark of seltishness,
The signet OF its all. enSlaving power
Upon q shining ore, and called 1t gold.
Before this image bow the vulgar great,
, The vainly rich, the miserable proud,
And, with blind feelings, reverence the power
That guides them to the dust OF misery
The truthfulness of the proposition
advanced, one Of the main thoughts OF
the text, may be briefly shown thus:
a. Apply it to the governments OF
the world, and you find it so. Take
the salaries of European mouarchs.
A few years since they stood rs fol-
lows The Emperor of Russia. IS, 250,-
600; the Sultan of Turkey, Sc, 100000
Napoleon I'LL, S., 900, 900; Emperor of
Austria, S4,0OO,O00; King of Prussia,
$4,000, 900; Victor Emanuel, $780,
600; Isabella of Spain, 81 ,S00,0 900
Leopold of Belgium, S500,000. Pres-
dent Grant, of the United States, re-
ceived S25 900, or salary of $3.50 per
day. The salaries Of the judiciary,
and of nearly all our offices of trust,
are lavishly maintained by the gov
ernment. We can not enumerate fol
want of space.
Take the cost Of war. Three wars in
India, for only twenty years, cost
Great Britain Sl95 1000, 900, besides an
equal amount spent at the same time
in their wars with Burmah and China.
The Crimean War cost the allies (Ehg-
land, France and Turkey S40O,OO0,-
600, while it is said that the same war
cost Russia two millions more. An
eminent French statistician said, after
much study, that this war cost all the
parties more than million dollars a
day, not to mention the actual waste of
property, and the financial loss involv-
ed in the sacrifice Of seven hundred
and fifty thousand men. In blood and
money his estimate is, one billion, sew
ell hundred million dollars. The Rev.
olutionary War cost America $3.50, ,000,-
600; the war with Great Britain in
1912, S120,00O,O00; the Florida War
sent in its bill for $4,000, 600; the
Mexican War for $3.000,0O0. From
January l, 1889, to March 3, 1913, the
war expenses of this government were
Sl53, 1854 ,Ssl, or five millions more than
all the civil expenses of the govern
ment from 1889 to 1913. The enor-
nous debt which accumulated during
the late Civil War is safely put down
at two billion five hundred million
dollars, while the sums paid to soldiers
and their families, together with other
incidentals, according to Horace Gree
ley'S estimate, amounts to three bill
lion dollars in the sum total. l clH
not here 60 into the details of our In
dian Wars. Suffice it to sayJnat dur
ing the first half of this Century they
cost us-s4OO, ,OOO, 900, While we paid for
the same time only SS,000,0 600 to edu-
cate them-one-fiftieth of the war en-
pense. One dollar to bless, fifty dol
lars to curse. Up to date, so it is stat
ed, our government has paid $500 for
every Indian killed, and yet probably
the bottle has killed more than the
bullet. The dreadful war, the Franco
Prussian, of few years since, cost
Prussia one billion dollars, and France
four billion dollars, while the destruc-
ton in Paris alone, when the final ca
tastrophe came, amounted to $3.50, ,00O,-
600. A single ship-of-war may cost a
nation S500,000 a year, and we pay
thousands of dollars for a single gun
that costs from ten to three hundred
dollars every time it is fired. Surely
the world is rich towards itself, and
the kingdom of Satan can find money
enough to carry on its mission OF ruin
and death. Says one: "Give me the
money that has been spent for war,
and will purchase every foot of land
on the face of the globe. will clothe
every man in an attire that kings and
queens might be proud of. | will
build a school-house OH every hillside,
and in every valley over the whole
earth. will supply that school with
competent teachers. L will build an
academy in every town, and endow
it; college in every State, and fill it
with professors. [ will cover every
hill with a church consecrated to the
promulgation of the gospel, and sup
port in its pulpit an able preacher OF
righteousness so that on every Sab
bath morning the chime on one hill
shall answer to the chime Oh another
around earth's broad circumference,
and the voice and the song of praise
sboll ocoopd no ono ,Oivarsa1 Offering